Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: plausible potential value, potential exit value, peak cash need, Hard Rock, Gamma Ventures, Investor Majority (more...)

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Product Description

Have the negotiating edge when getting your new business off the ground

Written by Dermot Berkery, an internationally known venture capitalist with Delta Partners, this complete toolbook thoroughly details how venture capitalists arrange the financing for a company; what they look for in a business plan; how they value a business; and how they structure the terms of an agreement. Within its pages, you'll find everything you need to successfully raise new business capital with the most attractive terms possible.

Using informative case studies, detailed charts, and term sheet exercises, Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur discusses the basic principles of the venture capital method, strategies for raising capital, methods of valuing the early-stage venture, and proven techniques for negotiating the deal. The author leads you step-by-step through:

• Developing a Financing Map
• Getting to the First Stepping Stone
• Understanding the Unique Cash Flow and Risk Dynamics of Early Stage Ventures
• Determining the Amount of Capital to Raise and What to Spend It on
• Learning How Venture Capital Firms Think
• Creating a Winning Business Plan
• Funding Early-Stage Companies
• Agreeing on a Term Sheet with a Venture Capitalist
• Setting Terms for Splitting the Rewards
• Allocating Control between Founders/Management and Investors
• Aligning the Interests of Founders/Management and Investors

This invaluable guide also includes term sheet exercises that test your understanding of various financing situations facing companies. In addition, the book features three extensive case studies: the first covering a fictional start-up company used throughout the book, the second offering a stepping stone map, and the third presenting a term sheet used in practice by venture capitalists.

About the Author

Dermot Berkery is a general partner with Delta Partners, a leading European venture capital company that invests in Ireland and the United Kingdom. He has led investments in early-stage companies in sectors such as software, electronics, mobile services, medical components, and security equipment. Mr. Berkery was formerly a Senior Manager with McKinsey & Co., where he served clients across the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia, focusing mainly on financial services and energy. He also lectures on entrepreneurial finance at the MBA program at University College Dublin.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 10, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071496025
• ISBN-13: 978-0071496025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,993 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So you need investors and need to write a business plan..., October 14, 2008

By	Thomas D. Kehoe (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I did, so I bought five books. I will review them from worst to best.

"Finding an Angel Investor In a Day," by The Planning Shop (2007), told me nothing I didn't know, and I didn't know anything about business plans or angel investors. The title is ludicrous and the advice is obvious, e.g., "Your business plan should be concise, compelling, and irresistible to investors." 1 star.

"The ABC's of Writing Winning Business Plans," by Garrett Sutton (2005), walks you through writing business plans for a lawn mowing business and buying a pizza restaurant. If your business is more complicated, this is not the book for you. 1 star.

"The Ernst & Young Business Plan Guide," by Brian Ford, Jay Boorstein, and Patrick Pruitt (2007), is a good book but hardly inspiring or insightful. If you follow this book your business plan will be competent but won't grab investors. 3 stars.

"Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs," by Susan Preston (2007). This book doesn't explain how to write a business plan, but it explains how to make a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation to investors -- a presentation that will grab investors. For example, one question is "How is your product or technology scalable?" I also learned some of the financials that angel investors look for, such as what IRR is expected. This book helped and inspired me to write an excellent presentation, that became the basis for my business plan. 5 stars.

"Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur," by Dermot Berkery (2008). This is a textbook for a business school course about venture capital. This book is full of insights. Every few pages new ideas would compel me to go to my computer and add stuff or rewrite my business plan, for example, Berkery emphasizes the need for clear milestones. Preston mentioned milestones but didn't make it clear why they are so important. The financials that were briefly presented in Preston's book are thoroughly presented in Berkery's book, for example, what gross margin investors look for (80% or more) and why they need such extremely profitable products or services. Plus you learn the jargon or key phrases of venture capitalists, e.g., "a large but well signaled market," the importance of "market power" and an effective "route to customers." I feel that my business plan now speaks to investors in their language, with the numbers they are looking for. 5 stars.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pulls it all together for me, March 27, 2008

By	Jules Pieri (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've worked in, and been around, VC and angel investor-financed businesses for a long time. So, in some ways the topics in this book are not entirely new to me. However, this book takes all the various buckets of entrepreneurial finance information that are scattered around my brain and puts them into a coherent whole.

More than that, since I am also in the process of fundraising for a startup, this book gives me clear guidance and demystifies the VC evaluation process. Other than investor scale and growth expectations, I think the advice applies equally well to angel investor evaluations.

The book is incredibly clear...I agree it is not a "VC for Dummies" book, yet a a total novice would indeed be able to navigate the content quite easily. The author has a gift for anticipating reader questions and possible confusion points...probably because he also teaches entrepreneurial finance and has seen all the questions before.

My husband saw me avidly reading this book and said "Do you have some racy novel between the covers of that book?" Joke aside, I have found it very compelling reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant., December 8, 2008

By	T. Marbois (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There is one word for this book and its contents - Brilliant.

The book thoroughly covers the forward movement in start up and how to move towards proper funding. It helps entrepreneurs think through the tough decisions that face them - and gives solid advice and ideas by showing working examples and outcomes. By clearly describing the motivations around each party involved in funding situations and seeing how those motivations can change at each stage of the game - this book gives the reader tools that any serious start up needs. I recommend this book 150% - It has been a solid guide in the steps I have taken and are continuing to make in my start-up.

Mr. Berkery deserves a standing ovation for the serious depth and thinking placed into this volume and provided to the entrepreneurial world!